I had to find something to do with them, n’est-ce pas ? Nothing hurts me more than tossing food because I forget about it. I could have done something I knew well how to, but I did not feel like making neither a soup nor a salad, although these sounded both good too. I was in fact looking forward to something new to use my bunch of soon-to-fadebeets.

So when P. walked into the kitchen on Saturday morning to tell me I take that we stay here this weekend, don’t we?, he gave me a brilliant idea. Inspiring!

Of course, we were staying in! There was really little chance that anything more exciting and adventurous could happen with my turned-black foot still bothering me — and that’s a mild way to put it as I have never had such a pitch black bruise. Within a few days, I’ve mastered the hopping technique like a pro and I can even cover distances in the house — from stove to couch — quite fast. I think I even like it.

“Gnocchi?” I said after I caught sight of lost potatoes in the vegetable basket. They too looked like they needed to find a happy destiny on my stove soon.

“Oh yes!”

P. and I love gnocchi. There was a time when I would make gnocchi quite often, but as with many foods, my cooking inspiration goes in phases: when I tire of one dish or ingredient, I move to the next to find new stimulation, only to come back to it later. Like many of us, I like to play with a recipe for weeks, to understand it better, and improve it. And then, by some sort of unexplained reason, I seem to forget about it for months, as if it never existed. Enfin presque !

Things would be slow during the weekend, I knew that far. So perhaps it was natural that the thought of being comfortably home made me crave for comfy food, you know, the kind of food that you imagine enjoying with a good bottle of red wine, and a good movie afterwards. I knew that gnocchi would be a winner for our mood: not difficult to make, and comforting.

Making gnocchi

I had not made beet gnocchi before, so I was quite pleased to take advantage of the situation to be inspired. With potatoes and lovely flours, I could not possibly go wrong. So I imagined my gnocchi served warm at lunch, arranged in a salad dressed in a hazelnut vinaigrette, with toasted hazelnuts and fresh spinach — I bet pieces of gorgonzola in it too would be a nice addition. Then on the same day, I served the leftovers for dinner — yes I do this type of things — with an oven-roasted tenderloin pork prepared with sage, pesto, prosciutto and cherry tomatoes. A different way to accommodate the same food for different moods, making for an entire gnocchi day.

Beet and Potato Gnocchi — Pistachio, Basil and Arugula Pesto

And the next day, I served the only ten left as a tiny appetizer dressed in the pistachio, arugula and basil pesto I had prepared for my meat the previous night.

And because a meal would not be complete chez nous without dessert, I also used the lovely strawberries P. had brought home — oh yes, did I tell you that he did the grocery shopping for me this week, I could get used to it — to make Lemongrass strawberry floating islands.

To feel a taste of Spring. After all, we managed to have our first lunch outside in the garden.

Lemongrass and Strawberry Floating Islands

We loved the gnocchi the three ways, didn’t leave a drop of the dessert. All this red turned our plates into an explosion of cheerful colors and heathful food.

But listen, do you actually know what my first thought was when I fell on my foot?
Oh no!!!! Our trip to Italy!

Really!

Needless to say that the gnocchi and our strawberry dessert really helped, making me feel as if we were there already.

With a potato ricer, mash the potatoes with the beets. Combine the mashed vegetables in a bowl, and place them on a floured working area.

Make a hole in the middle and add the egg. Mix together. Season with salt and pepper, and add the hazelnut powder, rice flour, cornstarch and potato flour. Adjust the flour accordingly. The dough should stay somewhat wet but not overly so.

Divide it in 4 pieces and roll i each into a long stick. Cut small pieces and make a design with a fork if you like (by rolling each gnocchi in the fork.)

Cook the gnocchi in salted boiling water for a few minutes only. The gnocchi are ready when they rise to the surface.

To serve, prepare the vinaigrette by mixing all ingredients in this order: salt and pepper, vinegar, shallot and emulsify with the oil; then add the coriander. Serve the warm gnocchi with the spinach leaves and the toasted chopped hazelnuts. Or serve with your favorite sauce, like perhaps a homemade pesto (mine was a pistachio/arugula/basil one.)

*Perhaps you know it is best to steam or bake the potatoes in the oven for gnocchi. They will be lighter when you make them.

62 comments

i am so sorry about your foot, bea! best wishes for a very quick recovery.
i cannot BELIEVE you still managed to make such a gorgeous meal while hopping around! you’re amazing. or a little crazy – maybe both. 🙂
(and i hope you’ll share the strawberry lemongrass floating islands recipe soon! the photos are stunning.)

oh no, so sorry about your foot! but you’ll be back up to normal in no time! this beet gnocchi looks absolutely gorgeous. i myself have some beets that are in desperate need of using up! this sounds like a great idea!

beautiful pictures Bea. Not enough to tempt me though, I really don’t like beetroot – and I’ve given it many many tries. Your dessert on the other hand looks very tempting. And I’m so jealous you can eat outside! Here April lives up to its reputation, going from nice and sunny one minute to rain, hail and lightning the next. Hope your foot recovers soon!

Bea, sometimes wow is all I can say. I know I repeat myself everytime I leave you a comment. I just run of out words to describe what goes through my head when I visit this blog. I’m mesmerized, seriously. Your colors and composition are flawless always. so effortless it seems. You know what it reminds me of? Although it has no relationship with food, I have the same feeling as when I see a photo of Audrey Hepburn and she always makes me want to be her and sigh at her presence. That’s how your photos make me feel and it’s no joke. I’m dead serious. I want to live in a world like your photos.
The floating island is so beautiful. Your pistachios always look from some kind of Willy Wonka world, so green… I can never get pistachios like that.
Absolutely gorgeous!

Bea! So beautiful as always!! I was just wondering if it’s possible to substitute regular flour in for the hazelnut and rice flours, as well as the potato starch…I don’t have any of these on hand and wondered if they served a similar purpose as flour in a regular gnocchi recipe…..thanks!!!

Gnocchi is becoming my holy grail. I am endlessly in search of perfection and always just one or two comic steps out of synch. The first time I made gnocchi, I made it under the tutilege of two wonderful Argentine women. It was divine. I later though, I can replicate that. And then tore my way through several recipes before deciding gnocchi must surely be a thing that is more art than science, more mastery than masonry.

Having seen those beautiful ruby beet gnocchi, I indend to give the idea a try. But like Sarah, I’m wondering whether I can do without the potato starch or sub something in. It is not something I usually have on hand.

Many thanks. Yes, I have to post the other recipe too soon! Need more time. And hopefully, my foot will only be a bad memory soon.

Thanks Mimi!

Marija, well you know, I don’t know. They just kept the color, which I was really pleased about. I simply boiled them in salted water.

Heidi, thanks!

Anna, I am glad you enjoy them. Many thanks!

Inne, this is funny! 😉 Are you sure good lovely brightly colored beets won’t tempt you? 😉 Well, the weather can also be whimsical, but I think we are now on the right track. At least if we listen to the weather forecast!

Alfie, thank you!

Aran, that is such a nice note of yours. I really feel touched. Many thanks to you. Btw, if youy want pistachios that green color, you have to buy ther Iranian or Sicilian ones. They are known for that. I buy mine shelled already.

Eleonora, merci! J’espère que tu aimeras!

Rosa, thank you!

Sarah and Erin, yes not a problem you can substitute with all-purpose flour. Check my other recipes which use more traditional flours. I liked the addition of hazelnut in this one, because of the nutty taste.

Goodness Bea! Your foot is sounding scary! I hope you’re feeling better soon. My mom has been dealing with a sprained ankle and broken foot for months, so I know that it really isn’t fun. It’s amazing that you’re still cooking up a storm! Take care and congratulations on all your recent accomplishments. : )

Wow, your photos are so so beautiful!! I have bookmarked so many of your recipes I love love love this site. My husband and I (also a chef) have a little gnocchi coompetition and I think the sensational colour of your beet gnocchi leaves us both for dead. Thank you for this gorgeous blog.http://www.thechefbite.blogspot.com

Thank you so much for a hazelnut vinaigrette recipe. I had it once in a restaurant and have never been able to replicate it. I hope this is the one. I agree with another poster, that i hope you someday give us the strawberry lemongrass floating island recipe. My Belgian grandmother made floating islands. They are very childhood for me. Yours are so beautiful. I absolutely love your blog and pictures. It truely cheers me up everytime i visit. Thank you so much for sharing.

the gnocchi do look amazing, i too am a big fan, but i am fixated by the pesto, i could swim in pesto. and those two colors together are really great, like all the colors in your blog. i don’t know how you manage to coordinate so many different colors that mesh perfectly. i must learn something from you…

Goodness, the color on those gnocchi is stunning! And somehow I have the feeling that you soon have something of that color on the black foot. Color is so amazing in the food world but also in a bruise!
Love that you did the gnocchi three ways. Once is enough on the foot. Hope it’s healing faster than usual.

This sounds heavenly. I need to try this as I love beets. This may convince my husband who is not crazy about beets but is crazy about gnocchi. I have pickled beets in the frids with an egg floating in there. I think that will be my snack. You got me in the mood for beets!

Love the blog, always enjoy reading it. I really like these gnocchi. I just made a gnocchi with choux pastry for the first time and it was incredible. Come take a look if you have a chance and let me know what you think.

The single best dish I have ever eaten was a beet-and-potato gnocchi in a butternut squash sauce, at Valentino in Santa Monica. I’ve been searching for the recipe ever since, and this, I hope, might approximate the gnocchi. Any thoughts on a butternut-squash sauce that might accompany them? The gnocchi at Valentino were very lightly sauced, and between the romantic lighting and the 1971 Barolo, it’s difficult to say exactly how the sauce was prepared. It seemed stock-based, with touch of cream, and tiny cubes of brunoised squash. It took all my willpower to keep from literally licking the plate clean.

Beetroot can be peeled, steamed, and then eaten warm with butter as a delicacy; cooked, pickled, and then eaten cold as a condiment; or peeled, shredded raw, and then eaten as a salad. Pickled beets are a traditional food of the American South. It is also common in Australia and New Zealand for pickled beetroot to be served on a hamburger.**^,

Béatrice Peltre is a food writer, stylist and photographer working out of her home studio in Boston.
She is a regular contributor to the Boston Globe Food Section, and her work has appeared in many publications
such as Saveur, Food and Wine, Whole Living, Fine Cooking, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, the Huffington Post,
the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Edible Boston, Living France, the New York Times Diner’s Journal,
and in many other international magazines.